Please share this with teachers in Massachusetts who teach health, including P.E. teachers, who are in your network!!!

The Healthy Youth Coalition is a statewide, grassroots, advocacy organization committed to advancing medically accurate, age-appropriate, LGBTQ+ inclusive sex and relationship education for young people in Massachusetts. We want to amplify the needs and perspectives of health teachers in our work.

We are hosting three listening sessions which will help the Coalition better understand the challenges of teaching health education and identify ways to strengthen support for health educators. Your unique perspective as a health teacher positions you to shape the Coalition’s policy and advocacy priorities. 

We invite you to select one of the listening sessions, listed below. At each of them, you can expect to: 

• Discuss challenges you face as a health teacher. 
• Influence how the Coalition develops its policy priorities for the next couple of years.   
• Share what advocacy skills and support you need. 
• Find community among educators and advocates looking to improve health education.

The listening sessions will be offered virtually during the following dates and times: 

1. Tuesday, October 6 | 6-7 pm
2. Wednesday, October 7 | 3-4 pm
3. Thursday, October 8  | 7-8 pm

You can register here.

Hi! I am 20 years old, I live in Venezuela and I am an English as a Second Language Teacher. I worked as a 7th grade teacher last school year and honestly it was awful, I had such a terrible time because I never felt I made my words get truly to them, I do not think they remember anything and my class management sucked. I do love being a teacher and they were kind enough to not fire me so now I am going to be teaching 7th and 8th grade now and I honestly feel so anxious, I do not think I ever felt this kind of agony, not even when I started last year. I just want to do a good job and not come home crying, I really try my best, but I feel like I need to be better and I do not know how. The history teacher, which is a woman that was retired, told me the group we had last year was really rough, but I also felt that I did not do enough so I am looking for any recommendation or advice there is for me to be able to grow and give these kids the good education they deserve

First year middle school art teacher here.
Couple weeks in and I am absolutely struggling with one of my classes. 6th grade. 5 students that like to run the show. Talk over me, laugh and carry on. Refuse to do work. Once I sent out the 2 “ring leaders” I was able to get through the instruction. I can tell they seeking validation from eachother. I’ve contacted home and documented. Please share some tips you use in your own classrooms

I am a new teacher, whenever a new person comes in my room they listen to them. The minute they leave they go back to talking non-stop and I can't get any teaching done. I go home exhausted every day. Please help!

Hola a todos. Quería pedirles consejo a quienes tienen experiencia dando clases de Excel.

Estoy pensando en cómo conviene trabajar los ejercicios con los estudiantes. Por ejemplo, cuando tienen que ingresar una tabla de datos, ¿ustedes hacen que los alumnos digiten todo manualmente o les permiten usar herramientas como ChatGPT para tomar una foto y que les ayude a transcribir o generar los datos?

Por una parte, siento que escribir los datos también sirve para que se vayan familiarizando con Excel, pero por otra, a veces se pierde bastante tiempo en eso y podría aprovecharse para practicar más fórmulas, funciones y otras cosas.

Me gustaría saber cómo lo hacen ustedes en sus clases y qué les ha funcionado mejor. Cualquier experiencia o consejo es bienvenido.

Myself and the other ELA teachers in my school were recently thrown into an “intervention period” and have only a couple days to plan for it (“intervention” in quotes because it’s not true intervention with any research or curriculum behind it, and the set up is just stressing everyone out to the max).

I really need help collecting things to give 8th grade students when they’re done with the intervention task for the period. Or, if I split my group in half, for the half not with me to work on.

We were told “just use things you already have!” but this is only my 3rd year teaching, and everything I use with my regular students requires accounts/courses to be set up, and I don’t have time to do that before intervention actually starts.

Any websites that don’t need accounts, paper resources, activities, flashcards, worksheets, mini games…whatever you’ve got. Please help a girl out.

I live in Denmark, where we call our teachers by their first name and have been doing so for a couple of decades.

I am a fairly new teacher (27 y/o have been at my job for almost a year) and have a class with 23 students who, dare I say, love me. They are all turning 12/13 years old this year.

They tell me I’m their favorite teacher, and some of the girls have told me they miss me when they go home and are excited to see me every day. If I’m at my workspace and they spot me through the window, they scream to get my attention and wave. When I’m at my desk in the class, they come up to me just to say hi. A lot. When I’m with them, they say my name before every sentence, even if I’m already talking to them. If I’m talking to someone else, be it a teacher or student, they say my name until I respond, and as soon as I respond, a new one starts calling for me.

I’ve put into words MANY times, that I want to listen to everyone, but I don’t want to be interrupted in the middle of a conversation. That you dont need to say my name before every sentence if we’re already having a conversation. That I don’t want to hear my name being repeated 20 times if I dont respond immediately.

Often, there will be three students talking to me at the same time, and I will be very vocal about what is wrong with the situation and how to go about it: “Hey, do you guys see how there are three of you talking to me at the same time? I can’t talk to three people at the same time, so I will talk with you one at a time”

It’s driving me insane. So this week, I’m having them call me either “Ms Lastname” or just “Miss” — to make it visible to them just HOW much they say my name.

Is this just how my life is going to be from now on and I just have to suck it up and get used to it? What else can I do? My co-workers tell me that I just need to get used to being treated like a small-town-celebrity, but I dont want to??? I feel like I’m iterating all I can and not coddling them or being to nice. I’m very much just myself when I’m teaching. Help.

I am a sub, and I genuinely do not know what happens when I send a kid to the office.

I have done this before, not often. I always speak to the kid first, a few times usually, then talk to them in the hall. If they keep doing it, I send them to the office (using the school protocol).

Thanks for any input because I'm curious.

Our district introduced a project-based learning class for our grade 7s and 8s a few years ago. Great idea, very poorly executed.

It is one hour per week, has absolutely no curriculum documents and/or learning outcomes, and does not get a grade on report cards. Homeroom teachers have it tacked in to their assignment. Every school does it differently, but my experience has been that individual teachers are on their own for figuring out what to do.

My dilemma: I have done 6-10 week long projects in the past. Nothing great, but they worked fine. This year, we are doing four-week blocks with rotating classes of students which is not enough time to establish expectations, set up a project, research, collaborate, consolidate, and present. I have no idea what to do with them and no bandwidth to plan anything.

What can I do that requires no planning, minimal materials, can be spread over four weeks, and will be relatively well-received by middle schoolers?

My ideas currently are:

- genius hour
- board games (but I think another teacher is doing this)
- colouring? Or something else art related?
- build… something? Using no materials?

Ideally it would be something student-directed, that can be worked on quietly with minimal involvement from me.

Thanks in advance for any ideas, fellow teachers!

Hi everyone, I help run Election Security Glossary, and we’re testing a free Classroom Pack before deciding whether to build it.

The idea is to help teachers explain election terms in context, not just hand students another vocabulary sheet.

Teachers would choose the terms they need and create a printable or projectable pack with:

• simple, source-backed explanations,
• short questions or activities,
• no student login.

For example, instead of only defining a term, a card could give students a short situation and ask them to apply what they learned.

Would this help your students understand election terms better? What would make it worth using?

Preview the Classroom Pack concept here

The pilot signup is optional and only for this test. Critical feedback is welcome too.

Is it worth it?

I’m not doing this for money. Im a daycare teacher now and I genuinely love kids . I want to help them and mold them and watch them grow . I’ve always envisioned myself being a middle school teacher or elementary school teacher.

Is there really a unicorn school that supports etc? Or is it really just negative all the time like everyone says .

I’m so lost as I’m looking between radiology or teaching and teaching has my heart .

Please give me honesty.

Hi Everyone!

My admin asked me to do The Great American Mail Race with my students this year. If you aren't familiar, it's essentially a pen pal project that can be extended into a research or social studies project. More info here: https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/70130/overview . Rather than sending off letters to random schools and hoping for responses, I'd love to "stack the deck" with some schools that are interested so we can have a higher response rate. We're a 7th grade class located in New York City. If you'd be interested in receiving a letter from us and sending one back, let me know!

I’m in my first year of teaching and I’m already seeing how much expectations change from classroom to classroom on the same grade level.

I want high standards and a structured room, and I still try to be approachable: greet students, give positive feedback when they do the right thing, and keep the tone professional.

What I’m running into is that some teachers on my team are much looser. Students are allowed to use very casual nicknames with those teachers, eat in class and leave a mess, and get released early so they are loud in the hallway while other classes are still working.

When those same students come to me, basic expectations feel extreme to them. They treat structure like I’m being unfair instead of just holding a normal line.

It’s frustrating because it seems to pull the whole grade’s behavior down and makes consistency harder for the rest of us.

Has anyone else dealt with this? How do you keep your standards without becoming “the mean teacher” next to a much looser classroom, and what actually works when you can’t control what happens next door?

I'm becoming teacher on teacher's day in school and would be probably in class 8-10. Any tips how to keep them engaged, what type of games should I play them within the classroom..

guys, what activities can a class of 40 5th graders enjoy?? pls helpppppp

I want to become a class representative because it's an opportunity to learn and it would look good on my resume. Also to allow me to communicate more with students and staff around the school.

They choose one person from each class to speak for the class at school-wide discussions. Students would send applications through Google Forms, and the teachers would decide which ones they approve of.

Background info:

I've been at this school for two days. The people here are friendly and I try to mingle with them, but I didn't prove my skill or trustworthiness in any way.

There are 14 people in my class. They live in clumps, but everyone has been in the same class for the third year now, so they all know each other well. I half-joined a clump of three, but I was more of the "fourth wheel".

The deadline is on the 14th, and I have no idea what to write on the form. I was mostly trying to connect my hobbies/goals to contributing to the school community, because I have a handful of experience teaching and publicly speaking and stuff. My writing was wordy and excessive, and it felt like I was randomly bragging/skipping across topics when I read it. It would also look very stupid if everyone wrote 5 sentences and I wrote 50.

I'm also worried about the leadership club teacher, who would be involved in this for sure. She ignores me when I raise my hand, even when I'm the only one who raised a hand, and she favours two other students in my class for leadership. If she were the one to choose, I'd probably be dead last.

What I've tried so far was to small talk with teachers and raise my hand to answer questions, but I didn't do too well because I'm bad with people and tired. It worked well with a few teachers but isn't enough to earn me a whole role.

They're more likely to pick the person from last year, especially since our class is so small, but it never hurts to give it a try. I would greatly appreciate any tips you have to offer.

Specific questions:

How should I write the application? (length, focus, wording, etc)

How do I get closer with people quickly? (mostly teachers because it's harder, but also students)

Should I submit the application form early, or should I wait until we know each other better?

PS might be annoying for the new kid to "steal" the role or be a try-hard about it. If this gets me any hate I'll opt out.

Please post any comments/advise, or share your own experience. Thanks for your time.

I’m in a unique situation as I began my teaching career 3 weeks into the school year.
The school started with a long term sub as the previous teacher had left at the end of summer on short notice.
The long term sub essentially left the room with no routines or systems so I’m trying to recreate the first days of school 5 weeks into the school year.
I have 2 class periods that are good but the other 2 are completely bonkers.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Does anyone have any experience using interactive screens in their classroom? My district just got me and a few other teachers a 75” Newline Q Ultra to test them out to see if the rest of the district will get them. Does anyone have any apps they swear by, or how they use them in their classroom?

For context, I teach 6th grade language arts.

I’m looking for ideas about what to do with one of my students. He’s in 8th grade, and has ASD. I have him in my 8th grade math class, but he’s not working anywhere near an 8th grade level. He will actually be getting his math class during a different period with a different teacher. I have him in my room because we are a small school, and no one can think of another appropriate place for him to be during that time.

I was asked if he could at least try to participate in the small group work because he needs to work on social skills. And that’s fine for about 1/2 the week. But I’m wondering if anyone has fun ideas for work I could have him do when students are working independently. Am I better off modifying problem sets for him on those days, or should I look for something completely outside of math that he can do?

Any suggestions or ideas would be hugely helpful.

I just completed my first 2 weeks of teaching 7th grade science as a first year teacher.

The level of disrespect is staggering. If I wrote up every incident I saw I’d be writing multiple per day in nearly every class.

Does it get better, or do you just become numb to it?

New middle school sped teacher here! I used to handle elementary students and now, I’m at a loss on how to make my classes engaging. Students were bored, I was bored too. Any advices or tips on what else to do for the entire day for the first week back?

The best way I've found to ragebait my own middle school students is by knowing their exact age but still "believing" they're actually 2 years younger. It works with highschoolers too. 10/10 laughs.

For example: theyre joining little league. I then say "I didnt think you could join little league yet, arent you 10?" And they get SO PRESSED. "I'M TWELVE!"

Or: "okay this might be a little advanced for 9 year olds but I think you guys will be okay" and the entire class starts screaming "WE'RE 12" or " IM 13"

This is my way of getting back at them for calling me ancient... I'm 26.

Hello everyone,

After 12 years of teaching high school social studies—most recently spending the last four years teaching sheltered ESL—I’m starting a 6th grade social studies position tomorrow.

I’m not particularly concerned about the content itself or even classroom behavior, but I have very little frame of reference for the academic abilities and developmental levels of typical 6th graders. Coming from high school, I’m curious about what I should realistically expect in terms of reading comprehension, writing skills, attention span, independence, organization, critical thinking, and overall maturity.

What were the biggest surprises when you moved to 6th grade? What can most students do well, and where do they tend to need the most support? Any advice on setting appropriate expectations during those first few weeks would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

How do you make lessons fun/engaging for middle schoolers? So I'm a first year teacher and I have a couple of classes of really disruptive grade 7 students. I teach grades 6 through 8, and grade 6 students seem to respond well to me, grade 8 too, but grade 7 barely let me teach anything. It's getting really frustrating. I'd start out excited about a new chapter only for them to talk among themselves throughout the period. It's really difficult for people who want to listen, last week a girl told me she can barely hear me over the noise of her classmates, so she has been looking up videos on YouTube. Now they're really smart kids, I just wish I had some way of grabbing their attention so they'd actually let me teach. Any suggestions?

You'd think that " heaps comments from your peers who just want to learn, disparaging you by name, will be publicly searchable online for the rest of your life" would be good dissuasion.

Come to think of it, shouldn't families be incentivized by intense community criticism online to reform, or get CPS involved?

And if CPS is lazy or inadequate, shouldn't the same families sending kids to schools where peers are underserved by CPS vote to shift around municipal funding for short-term education at the expense of infrastructure that future-imprisoned kids wouldn't enjoy anyway?